Yup, I'll Be Here-As Usual-
by NecrosisKink
Summary: Cayde is out to lunch for the fifth time in a day and is lucky enough to run into his pal at the bar in the lower hangar. Though the rookie guardian isn't quite as excited at first. (Cayde-6/Guardian, I took some artistic liberties with the information here so it could be relevant to any class or race. I also made the story itself ridiculous and fluffy.)


"So, what does the six stand for anyway."

She didn't really pose it as a question. More as a- a cue, really. A gesture implying that she deserved an explanation right about now.

Cayde looked at her.

"What?" he said, though he knew what the suggestion was for-what she wanted answered-It's sudden appearance and feeling compelled to stick to a certain kind of etiquette when participating in a conversation caused him to ask for clarification.

She rolled her eyes, annoyed by the fact that he knew.  
"You know, the six?" her eyes widened emphatically "in your name? Cayde-six?"

He feigned sudden realisation, physically leaning his head backward as he exclaimed "Ohhhhh, that. Wait. You seriously don't know?"

She motioned her palms towards him in a conceding motion and shrugged "Hey come on. I was pretty much born yesterday."

He nodded his head and scratched at an imaginary beard "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

Since her ghost had found her in the rubble near the air base, she had been learning about most of her world as if for the first time. She had been a Guardian before, a very long time ago. But sadly her original ghost had either died or wasn't able to find her again and thus, wasn't able to resurrect. So after many many years of being a corpse when a new ghost resurrected her, it was no surprise that there were more than a few holes in her memory.

She rolled her eyes again. An action Cayde had become a master at eliciting from her in only a few short weeks.

He crossed his arms. And his bright eyes looked her up and down. Preparing to enlightened this unenlightened babe standing before him with his enlightened wisdom.

Slowly. Deliberately. He began.  
"Well...You've noticed how at the end of all the exo's names there's a number right?"

She nodded "Right, like 266 or 347. Stuff like that." She said, choosing random numbers.

"Exactly. They're usually double digit or triple digit numbers, especially after an Exo has got a few years as a Guardian under his belt."  
He thought to himself, 'oh boy! here we go.'  
He couldn't wait to see the look on her face.  
He continued "The number stands for the total amount of times they've died and been resurrected."

Her eyes widened.

'Oh Yes. Yes...' that is just what Cayde wanted to see.  
Her brow furrowed. Her jaw dropped. Her breath hitched.  
'Perfect...' Cayde was incredibly pleased with himself to say the least.  
She stared at Cayde-6 with disbelief she-

"Wait." She suddenly said.

Cayde continued to encourage further disbelief where no one could hear. Within his own head. 'Uh huh! Uh huh!' he thought

"Does that..." she slowly sputtered out.

'This is it.'  
"Hmm?" Cayde hummed, a pleasant tone in his voice. Utterly nonchalant.

"Cayde-six." She stated.

"Yes?" his face broke out into a proud expression. His eyes followed her every move.

"Six. Six times. Only. SIX TIMES!?" she exclaimed as she leaned towards him. Her face bright and excited.

It finally dawned on her and Cayde was ecstatic, though he refused to fully show it. Either way, the old exo couldn't contain his cocky smile any longer. He had successfully impressed the newbie.

And of course it completely shocked her. Not many exos can live as long has he has and be able to boast a single digit resurrection total in their name.

"Yup. You got it." He said. His robotic yet somehow defined brow angled upward giving him that "Cocky Bastard" look that he wore so well.

She was staring at him hard, trying to figure out how-just-how!? Only six times! The missions guardians go on and the enemies we face it's common for a most guardians to have been resurrected up to 50 times by only their 5th year of service.

And to have lived as long as Cayde, to have seen the things he's seen, fight the fights he's fought and only die six times? It's amazing.

"Wow. I gotta say Cayde, when I first met you I thought you were just some arrogant joker, but now I'm starting to think you deserve to be." she said to him. His face still obviously pleased.

He chuckled "I'm glad you finally realized that. How old are you by the way? Do you know?"

She turned to her ghost who this whole time was floating silently above her shoulder, matching the amount of times she had rolled her eyes at Cayde during the extent of their conversation.  
"Oh yeah, ghost was able to tell me pretty soon after he found me. I'm almost as old as you, only a few years younger. Not counting the time I was out of commission in the rubble in russia, which I don't think even ghost knows the exact number of years I was out there."

Cayde-6 watched her silently. Her face grew thoughtful as she held her ghost in the palm of her hand.

"I wonder how many times I've died." she asked inwardly.

"You don't remember?" Cayde asked.

"No...I hardly remember anything. Ghost can you tell me how many times I've been resurrected?"

Ghost lit up "Certainly." and his triangular shell turned this way and that as he searched for the data within himself.  
"I'm sure I'll be able to turn something up." he chirped energetically.  
A few moments passed as ghost dug up the information "you have been resurrected by ghost..." It was funny how you almost felt like you could hear Ghost loading. Then finally he had the answer.

"...4 times." Ghost stated.

Ghost knew the significance of this number. He quickly looked between the two guardians as their faces processed what was just said.

Cayde grabbed her ghost and held the little light to his face "What? Repeat that Ghost, how many times!?"

Ghost's eye searched Cayde's face before repeating, this time sounding a little unsure "Four...four times."

Cayde slowly turned towards the guardian next to him.

Her face was frozen. Her eyes wide and mouth stuck making an "O" shape.

"Holy shit..." she finally said.

Cayde's brows came together in a serious expression.

"I'm...I'm more badass than you are!" she stood up with her arms over her head and laughed triumphantly.

Cayde stood up quickly after her. Releasing ghost and leaving him floating off pathetically to side.

"Now wait a minute" he started "Your timeline is all out of whack, maybe you only went out on one mission and died four times."

She playfully shoved him "Oh come on now old man don't be such a sore loser." her face was dripping victory. Her smile was an affront to Cayde's ego and boy did he feel it. She was lucky he liked her so much, or he might actually have gotten all bitter about it.

Ghost chimed in again "Actually, the few records I have of her show that she had gone on at least 80+ missions before she went missing in the Cosmodrome. Though it is unclear exactly how many and exactly how many years she was in service before going dark."

By this point she had broken out into a small jig in front of Cayde. Completely relishing the feeling of successfully one-upping the exo in the best possible way.

Cayde shook his head at her lack of modesty. 'a girl after my own heart.' he thought, still forlorn, but now some sense of admiration was mixed in along with it.

He turned to ghost and looked through the fingers of the hand covering his face.  
"Ghost..." he said calmly.

"Yes?" ghost beamed happily.

Cayde suddenly growled "Stop talking."

Ghost recoiled behind his guardian sheepishly.

She was still laughing, tears were beginning to form in her eyes from it all.

She comforted her little ghost.  
"Aw come on now don't bully him. It's not his fault you've-" she scooted over closer to him and poked his chest "-lost your touch, old man."

He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her close. He brought his face close to hers and said "you know it's funny that you mention that. You're still young. Let's see you make to my age with number. Then I'll be impressed."

She gave as good as she got and gripped his hand back, sizing up to him.

Ghost was slightly disturbed and confused by this sudden display of wills. He was secretly grateful for the fact that their chosen location-the bar in the lower hangar-was almost always empty so no one else would have to witness this, and ultimately decided it was time to retreat to the guardian's backpack for now.

Cayde and the Guardian were allowed to continue uninterrupted.

"A challenge from the hunter vanguard? How could I say no?" she replied.

Cayde beamed, and slid a strong arm around her waist.  
"Tell you what. You win and I'll let you take my position in the tower."

She laughed and shoved him away playfully causing him to stumble comically "Not this again! Cayde you need to stop trying to pawn your job off on me." she shook her head and began to take her leave. Cayde was going to try and convince her to take his job again, and that almost always goes on for way too long thanks to his desperation to be free of it. It was time to go.

But Cayde followed after her- pouting "Aw come on Guardian. You can't blame me for trying." he said sweetly.

He shrugged off blame like he shrugged off all responsibilities- with a smile.

"Christ. You're like a lost puppy. But I suppose that's why I like you." she replied and playfully pinched his cheek which offered absolutely no give, thanks to its metallic nature causing her to question why she tried doing that in the first place.

Cayde chuckled innocently, and swatted her hand away. "Take me with you...?"


End file.
